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A
post to the AnthemTheGame Reddit from user harishcs offers frank criticisms
of Anthem, discussing what's gone on since the launch of BioWare's
action/RPG. This is very lengthy, and is intended to be constructive, as noted
in the intro, which says, "I am going to preface by saying this will be a long
post, none of what you're about to read comes from a place of hatred, please
understand that every one of these concerns comes from a place of compassion and
hope." In that spirit, the
reply from BioWare community manager Darokaz offers thanks for the questions
this raises, and attempts to answer them. His conclusion remains optimistic:
"All I’ll say on this is that Anthem is here to stay. Do we have a lot of work
to do to fix parts of the game? Yes, and the team is committed to making
improvements and releasing new content." Here's the reply:

First, I want
to thank you for writing this up. I appreciate the honesty of how you (and
others) feel about the current state of things. I also want to say that I can’t
talk about everything, simply because it is not my area of expertise, or because
I don’t have the information you’re looking for. I stand by our statement of
being transparent though and will continue to do so here and on other channels.

Now, I want to address some of your points that I can:

Communication -
Pre-game release vs Post game release –
To start, things used to be a lot friendlier here for dev team members who
normally don’t talk on social channels or forums. They could answer questions,
give information and know that they aren’t going to have people getting upset at
them. Why would a dev team member take time away from working on the next update
to post when they know it’s likely to be met with hostile replies, or they get
flamed because can’t answer other questions that players are asking? I don’t
mind posting here when things aren’t so nice, but that’s because it’s my job.
For the devs it isn’t their job, and I’d like to ask that people remember that
when replying to them. When some people say “be nice or the devs will stop
posting” it’s 100% true. Be respectful and constructive with your feedback and
more team members will likely reply.

Aggravating the community by acknowledging trivial things over major issues –
I have been acknowledging issues that aren’t the major ones you mentioned, but
that’s because I can quickly check in on those and work with the team to see how
fast we can get them fixed. I also report major issues, but until I get word
back on them there is nothing else I can say. Issues like the Masterwork Embers
not dropping I can quickly bring to the attention of the team and we can get
fixed. I think it’s better that I address the things I can as quickly as I can
instead of nothing at all. Also, I try to avoid saying “thanks for the feedback,
I’ll share with the team” too many times in reply to posts 😊

Loot though? All I can do is point out what studio leadership shares on
channels. They are very aware of all the conversation going on around loot and
when they have more details to share, they will.

Now for the EA Help Tweet about Quickplay. The reason we asked for this
information is to help us track down the remaining issues players are
experiencing in Quickplay in one location, and to get more specifics on what
they were doing when they encountered the issue. Having all of that information
helps the team track down the bugs faster, which means they’re more likely to be
fixed in the next update, which means they can move on to other parts of the
patch sooner (other bugs, content, etc.).

Being confidential about the patch notes –
I said this before, but nothing was hidden on purpose in the patch notes. The
truth is patch notes come together late in the update process and I do
everything I can to ensure they are accurate, but sometimes things slip by with
all the moving pieces. I’d much rather put together patch notes even if they are
missing a few things instead of doing generic ones that just say “various bug
fixes and improvements”. I’ll work with the team to get this process better, but
we still may miss something from time to time, especially if it is something
that gets added to an update late in the process. We will never hide a nerf or
change in the patch notes on purpose, even if it’s something we know the
community won’t like. And if we do put in something that the community doesn’t
like we’ll do our best to explain why that particular change was made.

Not Learning from previous mistakes –
I’m not going to comment on the first two points because I didn’t work on
Andromeda and I know how some players feel about EA, but I do want to talk about
you addressing how we’re handling feedback.

For feedback, we’ve made a large number of changes based on what players have
told us. Not wanting to run to the Forge every time to launch an expedition? We
added the ability to launch anywhere in Fort Tarsis, that was because of player
feedback. Wanted to visually see loot drop from bosses in Strongholds? Added
because of player feedback. If you are talking about feedback on loot in general
(and I’m pretty sure you are) I’ve already said that the team is discussing and
that more will be likely be shared in the coming days. I know everyone wants to
know when, but I don’t have that answer. We do not ignore any feedback from
players, sometimes it just takes a bit longer as things need to be discussed for
a longer time. We don’t want to say something we can’t do or give incorrect
information. Like Chad Robertson said in a Tweet, we aren’t happy with where
loot is either, so know that it’s high on our priority list.

Discarding Feedback –
Honestly, reading this stings a bit because I never discard feedback. I love
this community and am very thankful for everything that has been brought up such
as feedback, bug reports, funny posts (༼ つ ◕◕ ༽つ Summon the loot update ༼ つ ◕◕
༽つ) and everything in between. I’m open to feedback on what you’d like to see
the community team do to make you feel welcomed and appreciated. We do our
livestreams, blog posts (like the inscriptions write up), patch notes, helping
out with issues when we have the info and more. I am always listening and
willing to make changes so please, let us know.

Lack of Content –
I’m not going to go into this too much as it’s areas that I don’t have control
over, or I don’t have the exact info on how the team is addressing. Know that I
relay the feedback from the community to the team on ALL of these issues. The
team is aware, and they are doing a lot of work to address these concerns.

Turning a good game bad –
All I’ll say on this is that Anthem is here to stay. Do we have a lot of work to
do to fix parts of the game? Yes, and the team is committed to making
improvements and releasing new content.

Conclusion –
Again, I want to thank this community for everything. The team is listening to
all of your feedback for Anthem on how you’d like to see the game improve, or
how you’d like to see us engage with the community differently. I know that
players want to see updates faster, but these things can take time to make sure
they are done right. We’re very appreciative of this community and look forward
to the days, weeks, months and years ahead. Strong Alone, Stronger Together.